Finchley win 2012 OGI

While London is preparing to kick off with the Olympics
games, the Anglo- Italian community had their Olympics already.

The 17th edition of the OGI, “Olimpiadi della gioventu Italiana” took place
From the 2nFd to the 4th of June at Barnet Copthall stadium. In spite of the
inclement weather, the traditional participating teams: Finchley, Southgate, AS
Londra Sud, Stanmore & Hendon and St. Peters competed in the games in the
usual friendly atmosphere of O.G.I.

The Champion of O.G.I 2012 was Finchley, the Winner of the
Les Rickard Award was Stanmore & Hendon while AS Londra Sud Won the
Sportsmanship Trophy.

The final Championship status is as follows:

TeamGoldSilverBronze

Finchley533030

Southgate303630

AS
Londra Sud262424

Stanmore
& Hendon191720

St. Peters133133

500 youngsters aged between 9 and 21 took part in many
track and field events as well as netball, football and swimming. The event
was, as usual, a great opportunity to meet new friends and have a fantastic
time.

On the last day of the games I had the chance to talk
with Adriano Morini, President of OGI and Francesca Timanti, secretary of the
OGI committee.

As Adriano Morini told us, the event is organize by a
committeeof enthusiastic volunteers and
parents. The organization of the games took two years. The Committee members
met every month in the first year of preparations, then once every two weeks in
the year of the games, while during the last months before the event the
meetings became more frequent. As Adriano told us, from this edition of OGI -
as it was in the 80’s when it all began - the team managers from each team are
responsible not only for running the games but for the overall promotion and
awareness of this event.

This year a very important role was played by Alessandro
Lunghi, coach manager of Londra Sud who promoted an awareness campaign in the
Italian schools in the south of the capital.